Green Tourism in Mountain Regions - Reducing Vulnerability and Promoting People and Place Centric Development in the Himalayas

In recent years, mountain regions are attracting great attention to Indian tourists in general and foreign tourists in particular. The potential mountain resources for promoting green tourism are enormous in the form of natural and cultural heritage such as biosphere reserves, flora and fauna, lakes and rivers and traditional rural resources. In order to utilise tourism industry market, uncontrolled numbers of tourists and related haphazard infrastructural facilities in the vulnerable mountain regions pose serious environmental implications. The ecological pressures are threatening land, water and wild life resources through direct and indirect environmental impacts together with generation of solid and liquid wastes, so green tourism is emerging as an important task in order to develop new relationship between communities, government agencies and private sectors. The strategy focuses on ecological understanding, environmental protection and ecodevelopment. The major attributes of the green tourism include environmental conservation and education and distribution of income to local people based on strong partnership. Various knowledge systems go a long way for achieving the goals of the green tourism, which creates awareness about the value of environmental resources. Mountains have ecological, recreational, educational and scientific values, which need to be utilised in sustainable way. Various tourist activities andfacilities need to be diversified in order to achieve multiple benefits including scientific field excursion, recreation in natural and cultural areas, community festivals and sport tourisms. Green tourism considers tourism development as an integral part of a national and regional development. The paper discusses the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the green tourism with particular reference to village tourism development programme taking empirical evidences from the Himalaya. Such programme also minimises biophysical and human vulnerability and risks in mountain regions. The environmental consciousness campaign and introduction of code through multi- purpose Tourist Resource Centres are gaining currency in above context.     

The role of a national park in classifying mountain tourism destinations: An exploratory study of the Italian Western Alps

Together with the main aim of preserving nature, national parks are also expected to play an important role for the local communities, driving economic activities toward the lens of sustainable development. This contribution aims to present an exploratory study on the relationship between the presence of a protected mountain area, the Gran Paradiso National Park(GPNP), in the North West of the Italian Alps, and the classification of tourism destinations, according to Weaver model of destination management. Starting from the model,the authors provide a quantitative analysis using a set of variables and indicators to comprehensively assess the differing patterns assumed by the municipalities within the borders of the GPNP and those that are not.The provisional results illustrate that the municipalities within the border of a protected area are more likely to be grouped alongside the sustainable mountain destinations. Meanwhile,research outcomes confirm that a protected area does not necessarily contrast the tourism industry but instead may boost local development by driving it within the borders of the sustainable development,switching from the area's only preservation function to a flywheel for the local communities.     

Roles and functions of tourism destinations in tourism region of south anhui: A tourist flow network perspective

Theoretic and practical significance has been highlighted in the research of the roles and functions of destinations,as destinations are restricted by the spatial structure based on tourist flow network from the perspective of relationship.This article conducted an empirical analysis for Tourism Region of South Anhui(TRSA) and revealed the necessity and feasibility of studying the roles and functions of destinations from tourist flow network’s perspective.The automorphic equivalence analysis and centrality analysis were used to classify 16 destinations in TRSA into six role types:tourist flow distribution center,hub of tourist flows,passageway destination,common touring destination,attached touring destination,and nearly isolated destination.Some suggestions were given on suitable infrastructure construction and destinations service designs according to their functions in network.This destination role positioning was based on tourist flow network structure in integral and macroscopic way.It provided an important reference for the balanced and harmonious development of all the destinations of TRSA.In addition,this article verified the applicability of social network analysis on tourist flow research in local scale,and expanded this method to destination role and function positioning.     

Investigating the tourism image of mountain scenic spots in China through the lens of tourist perception

A favorable tourism image of high-quality mountain scenic spots(HQMSS) is crucial for tourism prosperity and sustainability. This paper establishes a framework for investigating the tourism image based on cognitive-emotion theory and uses natural language processing(NLP) tools to clarify the cognition, emotion, and overall tourist image of the HQMSS in China from the perspective of tourist perception. This paper examines the multi-dimensional spatial differentiation of China’s overall image, inc...     

Sustainable tourism development in mountain areas in Sumadija and Western Serbia

Sustainable tourism,as an integral part of sustainable development,emerged as a logical outcome of preventing the uncontrolled and excessive use of tourism resources and attractions.This study analyzes whether mountain tourism development in Serbia can be sustainable and feasible in the long term.Given the heterogeneity of mountains in Serbia in terms of tourism development,the subject of this research is the achieved level of sustainable tourism development in mountains in the most developed and most visited region in Serbia-sumadija and Western Serbia:Zlatibor,Kopaonik,Tara,Zlatar,Mokra Gora and Go?.The sustainable tourism development level was analyzed by using five groups of the EU’s comparative indicators:economic,social,cultural,environmental and tourist satisfaction indicators.The results showed that the development of tourism in the examined mountains is not fully aligned with sustainable development.The tourist satisfaction indicator has the most acceptable values,which is a good basis for further harmonization of tourism development on the principles of sustainability.Economic indicators,especially the ratio of overnight stays and accommodation capacities,show the most unacceptable values,which indicate the need for implementing changes in the process of tourism development in the coming period.The analysis of sustainable tourism in mountain areas in sumadija and the Western Serbia undoubtfully points out that it is necessary to significantly change the current tourism product portfolio,which implies harmonizing mountain tourism development with global trends.Certainly,a comparative analysis that looks at the degree of sustainability of mountain tourism in some countries of the Alpine region,such as Switzerland,Austria and Slovenia,contributes to this.The more intensive development of tourism throughout the year would significantly improve indicators of sustainable tourism in all analyzed mountain areas of Sumadija and Western Serbia.This would improve the value of economic indicators,which are marked as the most unsustainable.The development of tourism in the summer season,especially recreational and adventure tourism,would improve the social and cultural component of sustainable tourism.Environmental dimension of sustainable tourism would be enhanced by the development of ecotourism.By connecting spatially close mountains(Zlatibor,Zlatar,Tara and Mokra Gora)into a unique and integrated tourism destination,synergistic effects would be achieved resulting in international recognition and making the region of?umadija and Western Serbia competitive on the European market.     

Community responses to mountain tourism: A case in Bhyundar Valley, Indian Himalaya

Tourism industry has become an important part of Indian economy, and tourism development has been, however, concentrated to a few areas. Accumulation of tourism activities has reached the critical stage in most of the tourism centers, which pose serious threats to the natural environment. The Bhyundar Valley of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve （NDBR） in Uttarakhand State of the Indian Himalaya is a burning example of such problems. Land use/cover changes, deforestation and accumulation of garbage are some of the negative impacts of unregulated tourism in the valley. Unsustainable activities of tourists and villagers in the valley make such problems very severe. To deal with the ongoing problems and ensure community involvement in tourism management and environmental conservation, the Biosphere Reserve Authority introduced ecotourism in the form of Eco Development Committees （EDCs） in the Bhyundar Valley. Study reveals that many problems associated with tourism have been minimized to some extent with the help of EDCs but few are still prevailing in valley. However, the existing attempts to conserve the valley from the negative effects of tourism are inadequate and modifications are needed in the current initiatives.     

STUDY OF RURAL TOURISM IN TURPAN, CHINA

~~STUDY OF RURAL TOURISM IN TURPAN ,CHINA@KEYIM Parhad$Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, P. R. China; The Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, P. R. ChinaBRAMWELL B, LANE B,…     

Approach to Mountain Hazards in Tibet, China

Tibet is located at the southwest boundary of China. It is the main body of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the highest and the youngest plateau in the world. Owing to complicated geology, Neo-tectonic movements, geomorphology, climate and plateau environment, various mountain hazards, such as debris flow, flash flood, landslide, collapse, snow avalanche and snow drifts, are widely distributed along the Jinsha River (the upper reaches of the Yangtze River), the Nu River and the Lancang River in the east, and the Yarlungzangbo River, the Pumqu River and the Poiqu River in the south and southeast of Tibet. The distribution area of mountain hazards in Tibet is about 589,000 km^2, 49.3% of its total territory. In comparison to other mountain regions in China, mountain hazards in Tibet break out unexpectedly with tremendously large scale and endanger the traffic lines, cities and towns, farmland, grassland, mountain environment, and make more dangers to the neighboring countries, such as Nepal, India, Myanmar and Bhutan. To mitigate mountain hazards, some suggestions are proposed in this paper, such as strengthening scientific research, enhancing joint studies, hazards mitigation planning, hazards warning and forecasting, controlling the most disastrous hazards and forbidding unreasonable human exploring activities in mountain areas.     

Litter decay in rangeland sites with varying history of human disturbance: a study with Hazargangi Chiltan mountain

Hazarganji Chiltan National Park in Balochistan, Pakistan was established in 1980 and the protected area was further extended in 1998. Large area of this mountain is still open for unmanaged human disturbances such as collection of wood for fuel purpose and livestock grazing. Removal of vegetation of rangelands has a significant negative impact on soil organic matter(SOM). This research evaluates litter decomposition in three sites of Hazarganji Chiltan mountain with varying history of human disturbances(unprotected site, young protected site and old protected site). Twigs of Pistacia khinjuk with approximately equal weight and length were placed in litter bags of mesh size 2 mm and were buried in 0-5 cm depth in three sites in January. Half of the twigs of each site received rain simulation in April, August, October, November and January while the other half of the twigs were subjected under natural conditions for 15 months. Twigs from each plot of each treatment of each site were collected from soil after every rain simulation in the previous month of experiment and were processed for weight loss assessment. Results showed that weight loss of twigs by decomposition was significantly higher in the soil of unprotected site as compared to other two sites and there was no difference between rain simulation and control treatments except that loss of weight of twigs of unprotected site was higher under control than rain simulation condition. To confirm that SOM was the major controlling factor for the decomposition of litter decay, soils of each site were collected and burned to remove SOM;thereafter, burned soil samples were mixed with homogenous powder of oven-dried native plants, incubated for 6 months and were provided with dissolved organic matter of the soils of each site. Results showed that there was no difference in the decomposition of litter between soils under controlled laboratory condition, which confirmed that SOM was a major controlling factor for the litter decay in soil under field conditions. The pyrosequencing analysis of the DNA of soils collected from three sites revealed the presence of bacterial species Thermovum composti.     

Adaptation management of mountain tourism service: the case of the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow River

Mountain areas are often rich in ecological diversity and recreational opportunities. Mountain tourism is thought to be an effective and important means for maintaining and expanding rural economies and, thus, improving the living conditions of rural societies. As mountain tourism service research is a professional field with several disciplines involved, a multi-disciplinary management pIatform is needed and it facilitates participation in sustainable mountain development by diverse stakeholders. With the source regions of the Yangtze and the Yellow River as a case study, this paper presents a conceptual framework for an adaptation management of mountain tourism services according to technical, policy, social and economic dimensions. The framework is based on a vulnerability assessment of mountain ecosystems, and can serve as a reference for the development of tourism service in other mountain areas.     

Function of spa development in countryside for domestic tourism in China

The common problems on tourism of developing countries have often been researched by west researchers until now, which can be concluded into special words: “two sectors”, “enclave construction”, “government’s interference”, “developing scale”, and “the industrial role of tourism” etc. In fact all the researches were done from the areas with the patronage of foreign visitors, how is the situation of domestic tourism was ignored in some points. In this paper, another developing model compared with the one with foreign visitors was presented to the readers on the case studies of countryside spas in China. Through this research, one aspect of Chinese real leisure life can be understood to some extent, and the implying that for bigger developing countries the domestic tourism can match the effect of international tourism should not be ignored at least to China. As the developing of economy, domestic tourism will finally unite with international one together, and the common problems will disappear step by step, therefore domestic tourism and international tourism of developing countries should be researched equally since now. Biography: WANG Yan-ping (1962–), male, a native of Heilongjiang Province, is a doctorate student of Chiba University of Japan. His research insterest is environmental impact assessment.     

Rural tourism development in China: Principles, models and the future

Rural tourism in China,has undergone a rapid development in the last three decades.It is an emerging and effective catalyst that promotes industrial restructuring,agricultural development and the upgrading of rural areas.However,there remains little understanding about the core issues of rural tourism in China:the exact connotation,the principles,the development models and the future directions.This review paper identifies the key issues based on literature analysis,national statistics and press reports to form a general picture of the past,the current and the future prospects of China’s rural tourism.The paper firstly addresses the definition,content and principles of rural tourism,and then provides an overview and brief evaluation of the progress and the current development models in China.Finally,based on the analysis of the experiences and problems,the authors sum up with five pathways of the future development of China’s rural tourism from the perspective of rural tourism resources,product,market and promotion.     

Impact of the Wenchuan Earthquake on tourism in Sichuan, China

An intensive earthquake, the Wenchuan Earthquake of 8.0 on the Richter scale, struck western Sichuan, China on May 12, 2008. The earthquake has tremendously affected all industries in the quake-hit areas, with no exception ：of the local tourism. The study of the effect of the earthquake on tourism enriches the theory of tourism, and more importantly, it well serves as the foundation for policy making. The objective of this study is to outline for readers the empirical findings on the various ways that the earthquake affected the operations and viability of tourism in the quake-hit areas. This paper is mainly divided into 3 parts. The first part is to discuss the importance of tourism in the quake-hit areas. The second is to analyze the influencing factors of tourism. The third is to assess the impact of the earthquake on tourism in Sichuan in different seasons.     

Spatial patterns of interprovincial mountain geographical names in China and implications for regional governance

Suffering from fragile environment, poor accessibility and infrastructure, as well as social, political and economic marginality, the interprovincial mountain geographical entities are difficult areas for the regional governance in China. By analyzing the spatial patterns and the influencing factors of the interprovincial mountain geographical names (IMGNs), the goal of this research is to clarify the geographical features of IMGNs and offer alternatives for the management of interprovincial mountain regions in China. The spatial visualization, the analysis of spatial agglomeration and the influencing factors of IMGNs were all implemented under a geographical information system. Results showed that there were 6869 IMGNs in China according to the database of “China’s Second National Survey of Geographical Names (2014–2018)”, including 4209 mountain geographical names, 1684 mountain peak geographical names and 976 the other mountain geographical names. Hunan Province had the largest number of names while Shanghai had the smallest number of names. In addition, the spatial variance of the mountain peak names and the mountain names were larger than that of the other mountain geographical names, and the IMGNs showed a significant clustering phenomenon in the southern part of China. The relative elevation and the population had an impact on the distribution of the IMGNs. The largest number of the names occurred where the relative elevation was between 1000–2000 m and where the population was between 40–50 million. Density of unnamed interprovincial mountain geographical entities declined from west to east in China. The analysis of generic names of different types of IMGNs implied that the naming of IMGNs is inconsistent. Based on these analyses, it is suggested that the government should take the IMGNs as management units, strengthen the naming of unnamed interprovincial mountain geographical entities, standardize the generic names of IMGNs and identify areas of poverty based on the survey of IMGNs.     

Globalization of Tourism and Third World Tourism Development——A Political Economy Perspective

1 Introduction “Tourism is advanced by businesses and governments alike as a development mechanism which can lift people out of poverty and make them equal partners in society. But regardless of how altruistic this claim may sound, it is doubtful whether those who are intended to benefit— at least according to the rhetoric—have gained nearly as much as those promoting tourism through corporate globalization… The tourism sector is tied closely to the globalizing force which pursues profit o…     

A comprehensive evaluation of tourism climate suitability in Qinghai Province, China

Qinghai Province is an important component of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. Scientific evaluation of the suitability of Qinghai’s climate for tourism can contribute to overcoming obstacles posed by climate on sustainable tourism development in Qinghai Province, including disparities between the low and high seasons, high altitude health concerns, and weather events. A tourism climate suitability evaluation model of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is constructed (Tourism Climate Suitability Index, or TCSI), and tourism climate suitability is comprehensively evaluated for Qinghai Province from climate data from 1960 to 2009. Results show that: (I) There is clear distributional characteristics of spatial-temporal variability of TCSI values in Qinghai Province. (II) Tourism climate suitability in Qinghai Province has significant seasonal and regional differences. The year is divided into a very suitable period (July and August), suitable tourism periods (from April and October), less suitable periods (From Nov to Mar). June to August is the most suitable tourism period in Qinghai. Qinghai Province is divided into five levels of tourism climate suitability: most suitable regions, very suitable regions, suitable regions, less suitable regions, and unsuitable region. (III) The key factor which influences regional differences in tourism climatic suitability is atmospheric oxygen. And the key factors which chiefly influence seasonal differences of tourism climate suitability are temperature and humidity, the wind chill factor, and barrier weather.     

Hydrological services by mountain ecosystems in Qilian Mountain of China: A review

Hydrological service is a hot issue in the current researches of ecosystem service, particularly in the upper reaches of mountain rivers in dry land areas, where the Qilian Mountain is a representative one. The Qilian Mountain, where forest, shrubland and grassland consist of its main ecosystems, can provide fresh water and many other ecosystem services, through a series of eco-hydrological process such as precipitation interception, soil water storage, and fresh water provision. Thus, monitoring water regulation and assessing the hydrological service of the Qilian Mountain are meaningful and helpful for the healthy development of the lower reaches of arid and semi-arid areas. In recent 10 years, hydrological services have been widely researched in terms of scale and landscape pattern, including water conservation, hydrological responses to afforestation and their ecological effects. This study, after analyzing lots of current models and applications of geographical information system (GIS) in hydrological services, gave a scientific and reasonable evaluation of mountain ecosystem in eco-hydrological services, by employing the combination of international forefronts and contentious issues into the Qilian Mountain. Assessments of hydrological services at regional or larger scales are limited compared with studies within watershed scale in the Qilian Mountain. In our evaluation results of forest ecosystems, it is concluded that long-term observation and dynamic monitoring of different types of ecosystem are indispensable, and the hydrological services and the potential variation in water supplement on regional and large scales should be central issues in the future research.     

CRWS-mountain Project: Coordinate remediation techniques and devices for water-soil pollution in mountain areas in China

Rural environmental governance is an important strategy to achieve the goal of building "green liveable villages" in China. However, studies on technology and devices for pollution remediation focus mainly on urban areas; in this regard, few studies have focused on rural areas, especially mountainous or hilly areas with interflow. Coordinate remediation techniques and devices for water-soil restoration in mountain areas(CRWS-mountain), a subproject of the "environmental monitoring and remediation in rural areas" project(ERM-rural project), was undertaken to develop techniques and devices for coordinating the restoration of water and soil in rural mountainous and hilly areas with interflow. The CRWS-mountain project will attempt to explore the mechanisms of pollutant transportation and transformation in the interflow-soil-surface water system, establish in-situ and heterotopic remediation systems in landfill, towns and surrounding areas, and construct a comprehensive system for "polluted soilinterflow-surface water" by integrating all the technologies and devices at Yanting, a typical rural mountainous hilly area in Sichuan, Southwest China. We expect that after using this comprehensive system, the water quality will meet the requirements for local water function zoning. The operation cost is 10% lower than that of the existing urban equipment.     

Analysis of runoff in ungauged mountain watersheds in Sichuan, China using kinematic-wave-based GIUH model

Floods are one of the most common natural hazards occurring all around the world. However, the knowledge of the origins of a food and its possible magnitude in a given region remains unclear yet. This lack of understanding is particularly acute in mountainous regions with large degrees in Sichuan Province, China, where runoff is seldom measured. The nature of streamflow in a region is related to the time and spatial distribution of rainfall quantity and watershed geomorphology. The geomorphologic characteristics are the channel network and surrounding landscape which transform the rainfall input into an output hydrograph at the outlet of the watershed. With the given geomorphologic properties of the watershed, theoretically the hydrological response function can be determined hydraulically without using any recorded data of past rainfall or runoff events. In this study, a kinematic-wave-based geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph (KW-GIUH) model was adopted and verified to estimate runoff in ungauged areas. Two mountain watersheds, the Yingjing River watershed and Tianquan River watershed in Sichuan were selected as study sites. The geomorphologic factors of the two watersheds were obtained by using a digital elevation model (DEM) based on the topographic database obtained from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission of US’s NASA. The tests of the model on the two watersheds were performed both at gauged and ungauged sites. Comparison between the simulated and observed hydrographs for a number of rainstorms at the gauged sites indicated the potential of the KW-GIUH model as a useful tool for runoff analysis in these regions. Moreover, to simulate possible concentrated rainstorms that could result in serious flooding in these areas, synthetic rainfall hyetographs were adopted as input to the KW-GIUH model to obtain the flow hydrographs at two ungauged sites for different return period conditions. Hydroeconomic analysis can be performed in the future to select the optimum design return period for determining the flood control work.     

Conserving agricultural heritage systems through tourism: Exploration of two mountainous communities in China

Community plays an important role in the preservation of agricultural heritage system （AHS）. Recently, many AHS have been valorized as interesting resources for rural tourism. The expectations are that tourism development （TD） can be supportive for the conservation of AHS while creating benefits for local communities. In this study, two mountainous pilot villages （Longxian and Xiaohuang） in a global conservation project for traditional agricutural systems - Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems （GIAHS） were selected to identify the relationship between AHS conservation and TD. The study undertook in-depth interviews, and questionnaires of village residents and informal discussions with local villagers. A t-test and a linear regression model were implemented to explore the comparative dimensions of the two communities with different geographical location, economic situation, and stage of TD. The research found some similarities and differences in the two mountainous communities during AHS conservation and TD. Firstly, AHS are preservaed well in both villages unconsiously, while the residents in Xiaohuang value more highly the heritage elements than the respondents in Longxian, and the villagers in Xiaohuang are more worried about their heritage system; Secondly, both villages expect lots of benefits from TD and they clearly perceive more positive than negative impact from tourism and thus approve TD, while the hugedifferent perception on transportation and accessibility in the two villages reflects the bottleneck of TD in Xiaohuang village. At the same time, the respondents from Xiaohuang perceive more positive and fewer negative impact from tourism than the respondents from Longxian. Thirdly, the respondents in the two villages all show positive attitudes towards participation in tourism mostly motivated by the high income expectation. The main factors to determine the community perception in two villages were also analyzed based on the data process. A location-based coneeputal framework of AHS conservation in partnership with TD at community scale is proposed at the end of the paper. The dynamics of tourism development, that could enhance a better understanding of the complex relationship between conservation objectives and tourism development are discussed.